Walden, GOP split on 'chained CPI'

The top House Republican campaign official broke with other GOP leaders Wednesday in criticizing President Barack Obama over his “chained CPI” proposal.

During an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said Obama was “trying to balance this budget on the backs of seniors” with the plan, which would change the way Social Security cost-of-living adjustments are calculated.

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It’s not surprising that Obama’s taking heat for cutting benefits for seniors — the plan would result in $230 billion in federal savings over the next decade — but that attack has generally come from the left. The reason: Chained CPI was included in Obama’s deficit-reduction proposal to placate Republicans.

It’s the one element of Obama’s budget that won praise from GOP leaders on Wednesday — though Republicans have indicated in recent weeks that it’s not enough to get them to agree to a deficit-reduction deal that raises taxes.

“While the president has backtracked on some of his entitlement reforms that were in conversations that we had a year and a half ago, he does deserve some credit for some incremental entitlement reforms that he has outlined in his budget,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday. ” But I would hope that he would not hold hostage these modest reforms for his demand for bigger tax hikes. Listen, why don’t we do what we can agree to do? Why don’t we find the common ground that we do have and move on that?”